"From your knowledge of the ethical issues involved in social influence research to what extent can such research be justified?"
“From your knowledge of the ethical issues involved in social influence research to what extent can such research be justified?”
Social Influence research considers issues such as conformity, obedience to authority and minority/majority influence. However, some of this research has been criticised as being unethical. The ethical issues that arise from this type of research are informed consent i.e. that all participants are aware of all aspects of the research; that participants should not be deceived, the right to withdraw from the research at any time and protection from psychological harm.
One of the most controversial pieces of research was undertaken by Milgram (1974) who was studying obedience to authority. He created a study to see whether participants would obey an experimenter when ordered to give another person electric shocks if they answered a question incorrectly. No electric shocks were actually administered and the learner was an accomplice of the experimenter. The main finding was that 65% of the participants gave a lethal electric shock of 450 volts if told to do so. Milgram concluded that most people would obey orders if someone in authority issued them.